Deadly I-94 Accident; Fog Slows Morning Drivers

ST. CLAIR SHORES (WWJ) – A host of emergency crews filled the lanes of westbound I-94 Thursday after a deadly early morning crash.

The freeway was closed for several hours as investigators worked the scene of the single car crash that killed one person. Michigan State Police say the accident happened shortly after midnight Thursday on westbound I-94 near Nine Mile Road. According to police, the car, which was traveling at a high rate of speed, lost control and struck a metal post then slammed into a tree where it burst into flames. The driver of the car was pronounced dead at the scene.

WWJ’s Ron Dewey, at the scene of the accident, described the car as being split in half by the tree with only the back half of the vehicle able to be seen against the base of the tree. The freeway reopened around 6am Thursday morning after hours of police investigation. No further details have been released about the victim.

In addition, the foggy, murky start to the morning commute forcing many drivers to take it slow on the roads. The dense fog, Thursday morning, keeping drivers down to less than a mile of visibility in the suburbs and the city, with fog in outlying areas even thicker. Whether or not the thick, heavy fog played a role in the deadly early morning crash is unknown.

Again, another I-94 auto fatality on the east side. And cars don’t go out of control with help of the driver’s poor judgement and lack of vehicle dynamics experience. The driver is a autonomous controller in-the-loop with a mechanical dynamic system and most vehicle instabilities come from bad decisions by the driver.

However, this eastside region of I-94 has a terrible record for highway accidents and death. Someone lost their life around 8 Mile not long ago.